Bunny Bow Headband

We made these sweet fabric headbands for Easter for the little members of our family and I totally want to steal them for myself. They are absolutely adorable and will look perfect with the fancy Easter attire in your photographs. I posted a pic the other day and many of you wanted a pattern, so here is a free tutorial. I know the holiday is just around the corner, but they will only take you about an hour so there is plenty of time to get some finished for your little’s. Grab some fabric from your stash, purchase some simple headbands to cover, print our patterns below and your set.

Bunny Bow Headband Pattern

Ear Bow Pattern Pieces

Row Along 2018: Row 4 Pinwheels

Row 4 is here and its a quickie! So that means it is a great time to get caught up if you need to and would like to. These simple pinwheels are extra fun because they are 3D! You will add these pinwheels to many quilts in the future. They are only a little more work than the classic, but add fun dimension to your project and are very unique.  Little one’s absolutely love them so they are especially fantastic in baby quilts.

Fabric:

For this row you will use your background fabric plus 8 fabrics of your choosing from your fats (or fat 1/8th’s).

Cutting:

Everything is cut the same size for this row,so its easy peasy.  But you are cutting a 5/8″ measurement which can be a little harder to see on your ruler, so just double check yourself that you are lined up correctly every time you cut.

Preparing the Pinwheel Units: 

Pressing:

The first video in the Facebook Group shows how to press your pinwheel fabrics.  Your folds will put you on the bias edge of the fabric, which is super stretchy, so make sure to press ( up and down motion) not iron (back and forth motion).  Ironing, rather than pressing will cause quilting fabrics (especially ones on bias) to stretch and distort out of shape, sometimes when pieces don’t line up and are not fitting together,this is the cause.

Another tip is to use a little glue stick in addition to pressing to hold your triangles in place , this is not necessary but helpful.

A glue stick and an awl are the most helpful tools for this row.

Stitching:

We have you stitch the pinwheel triangles closed, before they are stitched to the background, so that they do not open and give you any trouble in the next step. You can stitch them with your regular stitch length or even move to a larger basting size stitch. When stitching the triangles closed and a couple more times in this row you will use an 1/8″ seam. TIP: The inside edge of your 1/4″ presser foot is an 1/8″ and you can easily line fabrics up with it, as shown in the pic below.

You will again use a 1/8″ seam allowance to stitch the triangles to your backgrounds (with a regular or a basting stitch). Follow steps 3 &4 in the book exactly. Also it is very helpful to attach them into place with glue stick rather than pins. You will also find your awl very helpful when stitching from now on, you can use it to easily guide the triangle points under your presser foot. The #2 & #3 videos helps with these steps.

Stitching the Pinwheels:

When making your pinwheel block, there are 2 different configurations you can make, they each result in the pinwheel spinning at a different point or in a different direction. This was a small mistake we noticed in the book, our quilt shows the pinwheels in a different configuration than our how-to step shows. So here are both and you can choose which one you like best, the left or the right. Either works perfectly, they are just different, just make sure whichever configuration you choose, that all of your blocks are consistent. Our book quilt is made with the left picture configuration, and I decided to use the right for my quilt. Videos #4 – #7 offer additional help, pinning and stitching your pinwheel segments into blocks.

This pinwheel block will feel much more bulky than we are used to because of all of the extra layers so pay careful attention when pressing, press some seams open if you like and give each block a little extra press when you are finished. Video #8 helps with pressing the block.

Putting the row together: 

Layout all of your blocks in the order that you like the best, than take a photo or mark each ones place. Stitch them in pairs and so on until all 8 are together for your row.

This row was a breeze, don’t you think? Make sure to post your pics and use the hashtag #row4giveaway for a chance to win a Row Along prize!

Now everyone eat your Wheaties, next month are those darn birds! You’ll either love making them ,or be really excited to be finished, but I know you’ll adore them in the end.

I LOVE my quilt so far! I still need to add my red embroidery stitches to my Row #3, and stitch them together, but its a rainy day today so maybe I’ll get it done finally. We hope your loving your quilt too!!

Row Along 2018: Row 1 Simple Patches

I am so excited to make our Row Quilt with you all! Hopefully everyone has read the “Getting Ready to Row Along” post last month and has a copy of our book “Quilting Row by Row”. If not, do those two things and than come back. We thought it would be really fun to make this together as a large group in 2018 starting in January. But you can join the Row Along anytime, even a month or so behind. Don’t stress if your behind starting or behind as we go, and while we’re at it, don’t stress about anything to do with this quilt. Quilting should be fun and a stress reducer! We are here to have a good time, no matter your level of expertise or your pace, and you will probably make many mistakes as you go (we know because we did). Some mistakes you’ll want to fix and they will be a teacher and some you will just leave alone as happy little quilty accidents. I honestly like my quilts to have some noticeable mistakes, it reminds me that I am human.

On our last post we suggested reading the “Getting Started” chapter of our book ,first. Seriously, do it.  This chapter contains information that pertains to all of the rows, and you will want to refer back to it often as your making the quilt. Each month follow the directions in the book for the row we are working on. Our blog posts will point out areas in the directions that we think you should pay special attention to. We will also post some extra videos in our Facebook Group throughout the month, so make sure you request to join. Try to post any questions you have as we go to the Facebook group, we will respond daily. The group is also a great place to share your pics and make friends, we think you’ll enjoy it.

Okay, ready!? Row #1 is going to be your easiest row to make, as it is just simple squares.

The book suggests you use Fat Quarters, but you can also use your scrap or stash fabrics. I used exactly 26 fabrics as suggested, I  am using our kit with a little scrap mixed in. But you could also use a few more than 26 if you want even more variety in the fabrics (just keep it an even #). If you add more fabrics, you will end up with some extra sewn pairs, hang on to them because later in the month we will be posting a Free pattern that uses this exact technique to make a whole new quilt, (and its really cute!).

Make sure you have a variety of colors and a good mix of prints and simple basics.

I suggest pairing up everything before you start stitching to make sure you really like all of your combinations. I ended up swapping a few as I went along.

Once you have stitched all pairs and than cut them into units, you will make a layout for both rows. Play around with your final layout until you really love it!  In the book we suggest numbering all of these units to remember where they go, or I also like to use the camera on my phone.

As you stitch your rows together, pay careful attention that you are pressing all seams in a row, the same direction. All of Row 1 will go to the right and Row 2 to the left.

The reason we are pressing the seams opposing directions is so we can “butt” them together (refer to page 13 in “Getting Started”). By butting the seams you can feel that your squares are lined up perfectly, it decreases bulk and makes for a stronger quilt in the end.

The two opposing seams will fit together , kind of like a puzzle piece. It is something you can feel more than see. Once they are perfectly “butt”, pin in place.

TOOL TIP: We especially love the “fine” pins, as you can sew over them. You may still hit one with a needle at some point, but they will not do major damage to your sewing machine, the thinker ones might. We love either the clover “fine quilting” or “fine patchwork” the best (the difference between these 2 is that the quilting pins are long and the patchwork pins are short, I use them both, but you may prefer one length over the other). I know other brands have similar “fine” versions, any of those will work great too.

You will join the 2 rows that create Row 1 together, butting and pinning all of the seams as you go. Once you have stitched and pressed, you are finished with Row 1!  Below is mine. We can’t wait to see all of yours!

Now for a Giveaway! We are giving away a sweet little set of some of our favorite notions. Actually, we have 2, so here’s two ways you can win 1. I am giving 1 away on Instagram and 1 in the Facebook Group, post your your pics, of finished rows, fabric choices, any part making Row 1 into either place or both. On Instagram use #row1giveaway and TAG me @pipersgirls, so I will get your entry. In the Facebook Group also put #row1giveaway in your post. I will not draw winners until Feb 1st, so there is plenty of time to enter.

The giveaway includes a set of Clover Fine Patchwork Pins, A Clover Awl, A spool of our favorite neutral Aurifil thread and a mini cutting mat from Cute Cuts, just because its so cute!

 

 

ROW ALONG with us in 2018!

Most of you already know we have a newly released book with C & T Publishing called Quilting Row by Row.  The book is inspired by a class we did a few years back, where we made the beautiful row quilt pictured above, one row a month. At first the quilt might look a little daunting , but if you tackle it a month at a time, a row at a time, it becomes much more do-able. You know the saying: How do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time. Its just like that!

We will work one row at a time starting with the easiest and working our way up to the harder ones. You will learn a new fabulous quilting technique, that you will be pretty great at by the end of each row. And at the end of the year, you will have finished your own version of the beautiful quilt above. We know you want to make one! So make one with us! Come one come all, beginners and intermediates can quilt along.

So lets do it! Join our ONLINE ROW ALONG starting in January. We will be posting the row for you to work on, extra tips for each row, plus most months will have a bonus free pattern that you can make once you have mastered the technique for that month. And of course we will also have some GIVEAWAYS for those of you quilting along with us, because hey, we all love to win a quilty prize, right?

Who’s excited for 2018!?

Stay tuned for our Getting Started Post at the end of December and than the first Thursday of every month we will be posting that months Row. Make sure to get a copy of our book from us or at your LQS, its the main thing you will need and fabric of course. We have a few kits left, pick up fabric from your fave shop, or use up some of that stash.

Start a group and Row Along together, or get going on your own, either way it will be a blast!

We have a BOOK!

We are sooooo excited to announce our first ever BOOK is coming out! It is being published with C & T Publishing who did an absolutely amazing job partnering with us to create our vision perfectly. In “Quilting Row by Row” you can learn and perfect many quilting techniques one row at a time, while making the most beautiful quilt. The rows are made in order of difficulty, so that even beginners can make it and will finish up being an expert.

The book will start showing up in stores near you in October (please make sure to tell your favorite quilt shop about it). Copies are available from us directly now and have FREE SHIPPING, YAY!  We also have fantastic fabric packed QUILT KITS with all fabrics picked by us available.

Stay Tuned, we will be announcing a ROW ALONG soon, where you can sew along with us one row at a time with lots of additional tutorials, videos and some FUN surprises and prizes. We can’t wait!

Rainy Day

This is our latest Quilt design, Rainy Day. I just love it! I am going to try to steal it for myself to hang on the wall in my daughters room. It is mostly applique, with only pieced borders to add a little scrappy fun. The finished quilt is 48″ X 60″, perfect for a little ones bed or to hang as I want to do. We used the Apliquick tools and machine applique for this quilt, check out our tutorial if you would like to give them a try. Remember April showers bring May flowers!

Click this link to order a pattern or kit.